Lukasik joins nationally acclaimed Young Scholars in American Religion cohort
Candace Lukasik
Candace Lukasik, an assistant professor in Mississippi State’s Department of Philosophy and Religion, is joining a highly selective program for emerging scholars poised to shape the future of religious studies.
Lukasik has been named one of the Young Scholars in American Religion by the Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture for its 2024-2026 cohort. The Young Scholars program, supported by a Lilly Endowment grant, provides early career scholars with mentoring and professional development in publishing, grant writing, tenure preparation and other areas.
“This program has shaped the intellectual field of American religion for over four decades, and I am very grateful to be part of its legacy,” said Lukasik, who joined MSU as a faculty member in 2022. “Our cohort leaders and my fellow Young Scholars are an incredible group that I am thrilled to be in conversation with on everything from religious studies scholarship to teaching pedagogy and professionalization over the coming years. As an anthropologist of religion and interdisciplinary scholar in the field of religious studies, being recognized in this way is truly an honor.”
Lukasik, who is also an affiliate faculty member in the MSU Department of Anthropology and Middle Eastern Cultures, was awarded a 2024 Faculty Leave Fellowship from Brandeis University’s Crown Center for Middle East Studies. Her upcoming 2025 NYU Press publication “Martyrs and Migrants: Coptic Christians and the Persecution Politics of US Empire” explores how American religious imaginaries of global Christian persecution have remapped Coptic collective memory of martyrdom.
“Dr. Lukasik has established herself as a leading voice on issues related to migration and how it impacts religious identity and collective memory,” said J. Robert Thompson, MSU Department of Philosophy and Religion head. “Her research spans borders, revealing how lives adapt to new locales and communities. She is producing important insight into the relationship between religion and societies, and we are thrilled that these outside organizations are recognizing her work.”
Lukasik previously held a postdoctoral fellowship from 2020-2022 at the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, and was awarded an American Postdoctoral Research Leave Fellowship from the American Association of University Women, from 2023-2024. She earned her Ph.D. in sociocultural anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley in 2020.
For more details about MSU’s College of Arts and Sciences or the Department of Philosophy and Religion, visit www.cas.msstate.edu or www.philosophyandreligion.msstate.edu.
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Sarah Nicholas | College of Arts and Sciences
